The plant in Shuaibah, which is located 110km south of Jeddah on the coast of Red Sea, will the nation’s largest SWRO plant, and was awarded by Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), according to Business Korea.

Once the facility is completed, it will process 400,000 tonnes of sea water into fresh water a day, meeting the requirements of 1.3 million people in western Saudi Arabia.

As per the deal, which ends a five-year hiatus for the Korean group in the Saudi desalination market, Doosan Heavy will complete the construction of the plant as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor.

The Korean contractor last worked on the third phase of a seawater desalination plant at Yanbu in 2012, and prior to that was engaged on a desalination plant project at Ras Al Khair in 2010.

"We have won the first large seawater desalination deal in Saudi Arabia," said Yoon Seok-won, head of Water BG Group at Doosan Heavy Industries.

"We hope to move more aggressively to tap into the global RO seawater desalination market, which will worth $4.5bn (5.01 trillion won), by 2020."

The company is also penetrating the Saudi Arabian EPC market through its involvement with the Fadhili combined cycle power plant project worth $898m (SAR3.3bn), awarded last year.